FIBA WORLD CUP: Slaughter will not be 100 percent for Gilas if he does play

Basketball

FIBA WORLD CUP: Slaughter will not be 100 percent for Gilas if he does play

Paul Lintag on Sep 06, 2018 10:33 PM

Wednesday in the PBA Governors' Cup, Slaughter tweaked his left ankle in the fourth quarter of Ginebra's win over Northport after landing on Sean Anthony following a rebound play.

There's still a lot of uncertainly regarding the true severity of his latest ankle injury but one thing is for sure regarding Greg Slaughter exactly one week before Gilas Pilipinas plays Iran in the 2019 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers.

If he does play, he will not be at 100 percent.

Wednesday in the PBA Governors' Cup, Slaughter tweaked his left ankle in the fourth quarter of Ginebra's win over Northport after landing on Sean Anthony following a rebound play.

It's the same left ankle that bothered him towards the end of the 2018 PBA Philippine Cup, causing him to miss the Gin Kings' playoff run that ended with a semifinals defeat at the hands of eventual champion San Miguel.

Greg showed up to national team practice Thursday wearing a brace to support his ankle. He did not participate in drills.

"No doubt if I play I won't be 100 percent. I'll have to be on some painkillers and everything," Slaughter said.

"Right now we're just trying to control the swelling, because when it swells you can't get the range on your ankle to do any jumping or running," he added.

Before coming to practice, Slaughter says he spent time getting therapy done on his ankle.

However, it's still definitely painful 24 hours after he tweaked it.

"We did some needling, try to get some oxygenated blood in to maybe speed up the healing. Right now, my ankle is hurt because I stepped on Sean Anthony's body last night on that rebound. It was really unlucky but I'm still doing everything I can to get back," he said.

"I'm gonna go see a doctor tomorrow. Today I was just trying to get some therapy. I really wanted to not be as bad as it is right now because I've really been looking forward to this opportunity, I'm really excited. Right now, it's all about trying to get my ability to run and jump," Slaughter added.